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Well, permanent or long term anyway... I always thought of "Adieu" meaning more along the lines of "Vaio con Dios" which I always thought of as a travel blessing that was also used for long and perilous journeys.

I suspect this may be cultural (national?), rather than linguistic. "Adieu" and several derivations of it ("Ade", "Tschuess") are certainly used for casual parting in Switzerland, Australia, southern Germany and Alsace.

That's interesting (about adieu). I know that "adios" (Spanish) also has very similar roots. It's literally "a" (to) + "dios" (God). English has this as well: "goodbye" is really just a shortened form of "God be with ye." German's a new one for me, though. I wonder in which other languages this appears...